Idunn's Apple
by Brionacs
Summary: High school AU; 84. Boy meets girl and girl meets boy, that's the golden rule of a high school romance. Except for them, it should be rewritten as 'Boy kicks girl and girl kicks boy back'.
1. Chapter 1 : Welcome to Suzaku High

**And then something I needed to write as well. Time for some multitasking, eh? Phantasm of Oriense had pretty dark themes, and then I realized I needed some light-hearted themes stories and then… This! Multi-chaptered stories, (once again) AU that based off of a high-school life.**

**Keep in mind that this take place in Japan, hence the curriculum, terms, and everything will take places around Japanese schools. I've never been into Japan personally myself, but I have some relatives that are living in there. I'll try to elaborate some of the terms on the footnotes with everything I can for those who are still unfamiliar with, of course.**

**This is a work of a mere fan's fiction. Any similarities or likeness to any events or persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Final Fantasy Type-0 belongs to SE.**

* * *

"_Unreachable!"_

_Both of them tried to climb it once again, but it was still fruitless. They fell down and then stumbled on their butts painfully. She started to cry, whether because of the pain or the failure, nobody knew._

"_I-it's impossible! That's too high!"_

_He wanted to whine and probably cried just like her, but he didn't. He was a boy, a strong boy. He wouldn't cry. He then shifted his attention to her, clenching his hand in determination as he plastered his face with a confident grin._

"_I promise… I'll do it! I'll get it someday!"_

* * *

**Chapter 1 : Welcome to Suzaku High**

* * *

Honestly, he never felt more uncomfortable than right now.

Standing stiff in front of a mirror, he quietly watched over his own reflection in the said glass. Sure, his face never changed; as calm as usual, but his new uniform… Boy, did he look weird in that. Maybe it was the quality, or maybe it was just the leitmotif, but this Suzaku High's blazer was damn different than his local junior high school's gakuran. Not to mention that his pant was tad longer than he preferred and the necktie was... rather choking him.

This was going to take a time for him to adapt to.

Sighing in exasperation, he decided to not to rumble his mind over something this trivial anymore. Grabbing his key from the table, the young man then walked out of his small house with his bag intact. As soon as he was out of the empty building, he composedly locked the door back, to make sure that nobody would enter his now-empty-house.

Turning around on his heel, he quickly welcomed the bright ray of morning sunshine to his red-colored eyes, although he needed to shield them with his empty hand so that his sight wasn't overwhelmed by the light. Still, he smiled as he closed one eye in peacefulness and stared at the cloudless sky.

As of today, Eight's life as a high-school student had started.

…

It didn't take too long for him to arrive at the station. It was merely five minutes walking from his small depot of a house. After purchasing the appropriate ticket from the ticket machine, Eight slowly darted over to the empty seat on the respective platform. Luckily, while it was starting to get crowded, he could still consider these quantities of humans normal since the young teen was still able to find an empty seat amongst them.

As soon as he was seated, he put his bag aside and changed his attention to the direction of his home. The moment he reached Suzaku High, he wouldn't return here. He had decided to settle in the school's dormitory. Sure, it was actually possible for him to just travel between his high school and his home every day, but that would waste his time and money. Furthermore, there wasn't actually anyone in that small house anymore, because he had lived alone for a while due to his parents working abroad.

With this, he practically muttered a small, unheard farewell to his house.

Just in time, the train arrived and the brunet rose from his seat to embark to his destination.

…

Fortunately he had assumed the worst, because it had needed around an hour of his time to arrive at the gate of Suzaku High. It was far from his house, indeed, but it was worth it. To be able to enroll in this school, the most prestigious high school in Tokyo was every students' dreams.

Eight couldn't help but got mesmerized at the falling cherry blossoms' petals. Sure, he had gone here to check the place after the junior-high national exam, but at that time, the place wasn't decorated with this unbelievable panorama. Not that he hated it, of course.

When he was about to step in through the gate to settle in the auditorium, an arm was slipped on his shoulder, surprising Eight a bit.

"Heya~"

He could tell simply by the man's tone, even more with his action that was quite friendlier than anyone would expect. The only one who would do that to him would be none other than Jack, the closest thing Eight got as a best friend, who originated from the same junior-high school as him. The said brunet let out a sigh that was a mixture of exasperation and relief, while the man with coiffed hair winked back at him.

"Hey."

"Morning, pal~" Jack cheerily countered. "Didn't expect to find you first thing in the morning!"

Another sigh passed Eight's lips, but this one was definitely that of a relief. "Same here, Jack. Nice to be in the same school with you again."

"Yuuup!" this time, Jack grinned ear-to-ear as he pulled his arm back to shoulder his bag in a more comfortable position. "You don't know how happy I was when I was able to pull it off!"

Eight once again smiled. Inwardly, he was as happy as his best friend as well when Jack had managed to earn enough scores to be able to enroll into this school. He wouldn't lie, Jack was… rather lazy back there. Well, Jack was actually not stupid, _not __**that **__stupid, _but his grades were worth facepalming when they were in junior high. How in the blazes that he managed to pass the test was rather questionable even for Eight, but he decided not to pursue those unnecessary things.

After all, Jack's company was always appreciated, despite how much of a nagger he could be.

The two then started their walk toward the assembly hall, where the opening ceremony would be held. Of course, Jack wouldn't let this gone without any conversation.

"Say, Eight," He crossed his arms behind his head, whistling idly at times. "Which class are you in?"

"1-B." Eight responded quickly, as calm as ever. "You?"

Jack let out a noticeable whine at that, and that quirked the brunet's curiosity.

"Aww shucks!" he groaned. "I'm in 1-C!"

Eight couldn't suppress his chuckle at his friend's whine. This was why he always enjoyed Jack's company, he was always fun to interact with.

"I don't really see anything bad with that." He politely inquired. "We're next door with each other, that's all. We should be grateful for that, if any."

That didn't make Jack happier or sadder, but his whining continued. Maybe he even had a series of playful crocodile tears around his eyes already at this point. Not that Eight actually gave a serious attention at.

"Oww, that sounded like you're actually happy that you're able to get rid of me!"

"Actually, maybe I am."

"Hey!"

Jack pushed Eight's shoulder playfully while the smaller teen chuckled again. They continued to converse with each other like two best friends they were as they headed to the school's hall.

…

Seriously, he had expected that every grade were assembled here, but turned out that it was only the freshmen here. This school really rolled way too different than his small, ran-off-the-mill junior high school. In the auditorium, Eight had been separated from Jack since the rule said that everyone had to sit around with their new classmates. Well, he might be surrounded by bunch of new students that he didn't know yet, but that applied to every freshman here so that was actually no different.

Of course he had spent secretive stares to his classmates to acknowledge them, especially the girls. Hey, he was a healthy hormonal teenager, so that made perfect sense if he did such a thing, right? Either way, there were like… _a lot_ of cute girls here. And luckily, he seemed to find a lot of them in his class. Now this was what you call a high school roman!

…Still wouldn't top the girl that he always dreamed, of course. Even in these crowds, Eight could simply lifted his neck a bit and closed his eyes, and her perfect image would show immediately. He could picture her long and smooth hair, with her cute round eyes staring at him, and perhaps giggling like a little girl she was.

Heh, quite a one-sided crush he had since he was small. He never actually knew her name, where she lived, or any little bit of information about that girl. Furthermore, she probably wouldn't remember such a thing anymore anyway.

He was too lost in his imagination to notice that the principal had finished his speech. Now wait a minute, what was the principal's name again? Kariya, Halia or something?

Wow, way to be a good student, Eight. Not even the first hour and he already forgot.

When the principal was walking away from the center of the stage, the crowds weren't dismissed yet though. The gentle principal suddenly called for a certain name that Eight hadn't familiar yet.

"Freshmen representative, Ace of 1-B."

Eight was about to be surprised just like that that it was someone from his class, but sadly, his surprise was raising up to eleven when suddenly a person in front of him stood up from his seat.

"Yes!"

The person in front of him was a young teen with the similar figure as him, even their heights were about equal by the first glance. But what made this person called Ace distinct from him was the obvious shine of their hairs. Eight's was colored shady hazelnut while his was radiant gold. The golden haired teen started his beeline toward the stage as Eight could already hear some more commotions coming from his classmates.

"Freshmen representative… That means he got the highest grade on the entrance exam, right?"

"Amazing!"

Yeah, there were no other words to describe that freshmen representative. Having a good brain would help him for the incoming years here…

"Hey, Inaba, don't you think he's cute?" a girl just right beside Eight squealed to her friend, which was perfectly next to her.

"Y-yes! H-he's handsome!"

…As well as having a good looks would definitely help as well. Ah, Eight could already foresee this Ace had a fan club of him in the near future.

Ace made a quick stop as soon as he was on the middle of the stage. He coughed a little once, adjusted his tie a bit before he started his speech.

"With every respect I could muster," he politely began. "Fellow freshmen, welcome to Suzaku High. As of today, we had passed the very gate that I personally had so admired since long ago-"

Yep, girls would definitely consider him a perfect boyfriend material. Smart, had fantastic appearance, and quite the way with words. Eight would lie if he was going to say that he wasn't jealous here.

"-All the more, I hope we will be able to further our skills through friendly competitions-"

Suddenly, almost every pair of eyes there were locked at Ace, whether it was due to his amazing speech, due to his amazing looks, or even due to how loud he was and disturbed their nap.

…

Located on the second floor of the main building, it was no exaggerations to call the location of classroom of 1-B noisy, especially considering that it was about next to the stairs, where everyone passed through all the time. The good point to that? You didn't really need to rush _that_ much if you were late, and the cafeteria wasn't located too far from the class as well; just exactly one floor down and all set.

The seats were practically free to grab, first one to sit on a certain seat, and that chair was going to be his or her seating position for one year. That was a general, but unwritten rule in every class of Suzaku High.

Eight himself was lucky enough to grab a position he found the best. The second one from the back on the leftmost row, directly next to the window. In that position, the soft breeze of the air would blew, simply calming and comforting.

The most perfect of the most perfect.

He didn't know whether it was a coincidence or destiny, but in front of him was… the freshmen representative, Ace. He had silently observed him for a bit after he arrived in this class, this Ace guy barely spoke a word and he just quickly opened a small literature book and he calmly read that book wordlessly. Eight's first impression on Ace, you asked? Antisocial, perhaps might be cold-hearted, even.

But you know what they said about first impression, they rarely came out true. And so did this situation. Sure, that blond didn't speak a word, but at one occasion, a group of girls approached him and asked something that Eight wasn't really sure of, Ace immediately closed his book and responded to them gently.

Still, maybe Ace did not realize the squeals those girls emitted when they were able to successfully talk to the guy as he returned to his book. Wow, everything about him sure escalated quicker than Eight had originally thought. This Ace was definitely interesting.

Aside from Ace, he had observed some people that were around his seating position. The long-pigtailed girl right next to himself, for one. This one girl sent his 'judging meter' to the weirdest point. Let's point that out, for one, that she kept humming and talking **to herself** while rocking her head to the side and forth all the time, all in all while she kept smiling like an innocent baby. He didn't know her name yet, but he would put this girl into the category of… adorable-yet-rather-nuts as of now.

In front of the pigtailed girl, there was a cute girl, a very cute one. Her light brown hair was definitely combed perfectly and groomed astoundingly into a small, eye-catchy ponytail. Aside from her appearance, she seemed to be a kind girl altogether. While she seemed to be busy with texting someone by her cell phone, whenever there was someone that initiate a conversation with her, she would stop her attention at her mobile phone as she replied back with a small smile, sometimes blushing shyly a bit. He couldn't count how many boys were already infatuated by that feature of her already.

Hell, he might be one of them.

Then… there was one guy that undoubtedly grabbed everyone's attention. The spiky haired guy with very muscular build, who sat with his legs on the table. Moreover, he didn't seem to care to the eyes of the people that were scared, or even disgusted by his attitude, he merely slept there like that with big headphone covering his ears.

Er… What was the word again? A delinquent, right?

Oddly enough, the four of them (Ace, the pigtailed girl, the chocolate-haired girl, and Eight himself) were the only one that weren't bothered by the boy's attitude. Personally, Eight never had a delinquent such as this guy as a classmate before, but he often hung out with people that were familiar with that type of guy. He didn't really like that brash attitude, of course, but not that he could actually change that.

After all, this kind of variations made a class more interesting.

Just when he was about to avert his attention elsewhere, the main door of the class was promptly opened, surprising almost everyone of 1-B. Before the door now was a tall man looking in his mid-twenties, dressed in a formal teacher shirt. His deep blue hair was pretty conspicuous already, but the true noticeable trait was the scar around his mouth, which made him looked rather enigmatic.

"Good morning, class." his deep, monotonous voice echoed in the class as he walked to the teacher's table.

Nobody knew his exact name, but one thing that was obvious was that this man was their homeroom teacher. Thus, they replied with something appropriate: greeted him back. Some did it enthusiastically, some flatly.

"Good morning, _sensei_!"

The homeroom teacher gave a small nod indifferently as he put his book on the table, before he opened his mouth to talk.

"I'll be your homeroom teacher for one year, class 1-B. My name is Kurasame Susaya and I—"

Out of blue, Kurasame abruptly cut his own sentences as his gaze slowly trailed over to a certain person, which he stopped right when he acquired his target in his sight. Everyone sans the said certain student moved their heads to see what was their teacher staring at.

Eight let out a small scoff at this. Of course, his teacher was glaring intently at the delinquent boy.

Surprisingly, Kurasame merely sighed as he calmly grabbed a chalk from his pencil case. And as swift as he took it, he launched it right on the sleeping student's head. The said student stumbled back and fell with his back first with a loud 'OW!' coming from his mouth, rolling on the floor in pain while rubbing his poor head after.

"…Now where were we?"

Like a true boss, the homeroom teacher casually ignored the student's pain. He stayed reserved at his previous action and he didn't even look like he regretted it any bit.

"Oi, asshole! The hell was that fer!?"

The delinquent's raucous voice erupted as he rose from his position and he glared back at the homeroom teacher, while still massaging the back of his head, his headphone dropped dead on the floor. However, as soon as his glare met Kurasame's uninterested stare, the student's face started to get painted with every bit of horrors he had ever experienced.

"T-the fuck!? I-I got ya as my homeroom teacher!?"

Okay, suddenly things were getting rather interesting. You know, the moment when you found a supposedly-intimidating-person chickened out by a more-intimidating-person. At the young boy's curse, Kurasame emitted another exasperated sigh.

"Watch your mouth, Nine. You don't want me to flunk you again."

…Oh, that made sense. A delinquent from last year got flunked? Totally not something very surprising, no sarcasm.

Still pale, Nine slowly reached for his chair before he sat back like a good boy. He still grumbled and cursed Kurasame under his breath, though.

Rather satisfied with Nine's response, Kurasame calmly continued, resting his arms on the small podium in front of him.

"As I've said, I'll be your homeroom teacher, as well as your mathematics teacher, 1-B." Kurasame paused a little, gazing at his nervous students a bit before he opened his attendance book. "I'm going to call you by your name. I expect you to raise your hand as well as introducing yourself in response."

That flat and blatant tone from Kurasame only made them more nervous, if any.

"Ace."

Eight raised an eyebrow as the golden haired student in front of him raised his hand. Gee, teachers sure did love to call him first a lot, not in the bad way, of course.

Ace rose from his seat calmly, but he would be lying if he wasn't nervous a little here. On the other hand, Kurasame seemed to already have a mild interest in him. Well, considering Ace scored the highest score on the entrance exam, that was pretty understandable for a normal teacher to be ecstatic about it.

"You can call me Ace. I am from Hosen Junior in Akita. My favorite subject is biology, and I enjoy reading books in my spare time."

As Ace introduced himself, Eight could already hear some commotions coming from the other side of the class. He couldn't tell exactly, but they were probably talking about Hosen Junior High. Eight never knew much about it (it was pretty far from Tokyo, mind you), but rumors said that school got a lot of geniuses enroll there and most of graduates from there mostly earned a guaranteed pass to rated-S high school.

That kinda explained how smart Ace was.

"…That's all, I suppose? I am very pleased to be your acquaintance, class 1-B." Ace awkwardly scratched his cheek, faint nervous blushes appearing on his face. Again, while Ace didn't seem to notice, Eight could swear he heard the girls squealing over Ace's blushing face.

Ace sat down again as Kurasame nodded and returned to his attendance book, calling the next name composedly. "Deuce."

"A-Ah, yes!"

The soft-spoken yet surprised voice came from the cute brown haired girl that was simply breathtaking for the boys. Needless to ask, almost everyone, girls included, paid attention to the said girl's action.

"My name is Deuce. I-I am from Keiai Junior in Chiba." She bashfully introduced herself, swallowing a lump of nervousness as she paused for a moment. "Umm… I love music and I always dreamed of becoming a musician in the future. I also love to make friends, so I hope we will become good friends, everyone!"

Deuce's last sentence was rather cheery unlike the first, but nonetheless, her demureness was already engraved in those normal school boys' hearts, Eight's included.

Kurasame nodded as an affirmation as Deuce sat back again and she exhaled a sigh of relief. He ticked something on the book with a pen before he called the next name. "Akane."

A girl rose from her seat as she introduced herself. The girl was not as cute as Deuce, but still scored pretty high in Eight's dictionary. After she had done introducing, she sat down back and Kurasame called the next student, in which the student raised his hand and stood from his seat to introduce himself.

It continued for another five or six person until Kurasame called for a certain name called 'Cinque'. As soon as he announced it, the pigtailed girl raised her hand enthusiastically and almost rocketed off of her seat.

If that didn't surprise everyone, then there wasn't anything else that could surprise them.

"Heya frieeends~ I am Cinque~" the girl exclaimed in quite a… weird accent as she pumped her fist on the air. "Cinque's from Keiai like Deucey there~ Actually, we were classmates as well! And Deucey was always as shy as this as well~"

…The whole class was speechless, except for Deuce who covered her face in embarrassment while muttering 'Cinque! That's not how you introduce yourself! And don't bring my name with you in that sort of introduction!' under her breaths.

"But that's enough of Deucey! Cinque will talk more about Cinque!" Cinque smiled innocently, and pulled her arm first before pumping it up again on the air. "So~ Cinque really really like to play softball! And Cinque often scored homeruns! Cinque will join the softball club and try her best there!"

Eight made a face, _that_ sort of face. Okay, maybe he had underestimated her about being weird. She was a plain nut job, alright.

Even Kurasame couldn't help but put his face on his palm. He was happy that he got a promising student like Ace, but he had to get Nine and this girl under his care for one year? This was definitely not going to be one of the better years for him.

For the sake of his sanity as well, Kurasame gestured for Cinque to sit down again. The girl pouted a little when her 'little' introduction was abruptly cut, but after Deuce, who was still embarrassed like hell, suggested her to sit down as well, she obeyed. Surprisingly— or not surprisingly, Cinque returned to her humming once again.

What a mood whiplash, but nobody was surprised anymore after that introduction.

Sighing in exasperation, Kurasame called the next student and the respective student would reply by introducing themselves to the class. Once again, the cycle returned for around ten students until the name was mentioned.

"Eight."

Ah, about time.

Rising from his seat, Eight regulated his tie a bit before he spoke. Better try to leave as best impression as possible.

"Hello, class. You can call me Eight. I am from Otsuma Junior in Saitama. As for my hobby, I have extreme fondness on sports and I always do them whenever I have the chance." He stopped a bit, smiling slightly to the whole class. "Pleased to meet you guys. Let's enjoy our high school life together."

Okay, Eight supposed that was good enough so he slumped back on his chair. Now, hopefully he got good responses from that.

In which luckily, he did. It was faint and barely audible, but he managed to hear some girls were chatting about him.

"Hey, he's not bad."

"Yes. Ace, Naoki, Satoshi, and then this Eight. There are four of cute boys already!"

…Yes…!

All of his yes!

Practicing those lines for the whole night yesterday actually paid off handsomely. He swore he wanted to shout 'YAHOOO!' so much for his crowning moment of fabulousness, but he had to keep his image calm and collected for the time being.

Maybe he had to celebrate this later on. Inviting Jack didn't sound too bad as well.

Kurasame gave a small 'hmm' at Eight's introduction. The blue haired teacher checked the attendance list and continued his job on calling all of his students. Just like what their friends had done, every time Kurasame called their names, they would let the others knew about them, albeit it was still short.

But hey, there would be the times to recognize each other better later on.

At least it reached the dark horse's name. Kurasame needed to let out a sigh again as he mentioned the name.

"Nine."

Everyone fell silent. Some stared at him, but some were too scared to even gaze at him. And frankly, the silent treatment they gave to him put Nine in a rather difficult situation.

"Uh… hey." He scratched his spiky hair. "'m Nine. I'm from…"

Silence.

"Uuuuhhh…"

More silence. Nine could only scratch his hair faster in confusion.

"…hell was the name again? Sorry, Kurasame. I kinda forgot my junior high school's name, oi."

The whole class actually laughed at this, meanwhile Kurasame facepalmed once again. Nine didn't even address him with his title, and the obvious forgetting his junior high school's name? He didn't need to deal with this particular idiot right now. The sooner that he could finish dealing with Nine, the better.

"Next, Kazuyoshi."

Nine blinked in surprise. As another boy wanted to stand and introduced himself, Nine started something unsurprising; a childish tantrum, scaring some students of 1-B.

"THE HELL!? YA PRACTIC'LLY SKIPPED ME, OI! I HAVEN'T 'VEN STARTED YET!"

Why in the world this idiot resided in his class, or even existed was beyond Kurasame. Of course, he always had the countermeasure against this idiot. The teacher swiftly grabbed three pieces of chalk and launched it at Nine.

Nine was too late to notice it, and voila! Three chalks straight on the forehead! His big body was sent arched back and the back of his head once again met the cold floor of the surface. The impact left out a big thud, and Nine was probably left knocked out cold on the floor thanks to that.

This was definitely what everyone meant by 'Three strikes, and you're out!".

Kurasame's reaction? He continued his class like there was no problem at all.

The homeroom teacher kept on calling his pupils' name. The process continued smoothly until something very weird happened.

"Cater."

No response.

"…Cater." Kurasame repeated, but the response was still the same: None.

The students looked at each other, trying to find the student named 'Cater', but to no avail. A student wasn't present on her first day? This was rare.

"Anyone knew her already?" he inquired to his students, but no positive response. Nobody recognized this Cater girl.

Except if she was sick. That thing couldn't be helped. This might be rare, but it wasn't like it never happened before.

For now, Kurasame skipped the name and returned to his work on calling his student one by one.

That was when everyone managed to notice the loud steps from the hall. Every student inquisitively turned their heads on the direction of the hall, when the door to class 1-B was abruptly opened by a girl.

A red-haired girl, whose uniform was rather unkempt from all her running, was standing by the door, inhaling and exhaling heavy breaths in exhaustion. While her green eyes radiated the panics and rushes inside of her, they were still emitting an unique light of their own. It was obvious that she was late, she hadn't even changed her sneakers into her uwabaki yet.

"I-I am not late yet, r-right?"

* * *

_Next: Chapter 2: Room 218_

_And thus started Eight's life in his new dorm— But h-hey! This was all too good to be a coincidence! Someone must have pulled the strings that he was stuck with this person. **Again.**_

* * *

***Gakuran : Uniforms for many middle school and high school boys in Japan. The color is normally black, but some schools use navy and dark blue as well. The top has a standing collar buttoning down from top-to-bottom. Buttons are usually decorated with the school emblem to show respect to the school. Pants are straight leg and a black or dark-colored belt is worn with them.**

***Uwabaki : A type of Japanese slippers worn indoors at home, school or certain companies and public buildings where street shoes are prohibited. The shape resembles that of a pair of shoe more than a flip-flop.**

**As you can tell so far, the main character is Eight. As for pairing, while 84 will definitely be in as you can tell from the characters tag, some side pairings will make it inside. Yanno, I might twiddle with the side pairings a bit. I am not the biggest of a shipper so everyone x everyone is totally fine with me, although I do have my favorites as well: the ever-so-popular shipping quartet of FF Type-0 fandom (I am talking about A2, 84, 35, and MR).**

**Except I might be kidding. The romance wouldn't be too strong here, probably, because I intended this for more friendship/gen based here. _Probably. _**

**Bet you guys think that the plot is predictable, right? I'm just going to tell you this: Keep your eyes open. ****You can't ignore the obvious humor tag as well, okay? **A lot of wackiness and dorkiness will ensue in the later chapters. R & R, yes?


	2. Chapter 2 : Room 218

**Dayuuum, sorry for the super late updating. There were a lot of games that I had to finish to satisfy my fangasms, so… Yeah. **

**Three anons: WELP .w. sorry for this, I hope this would satisfy you.**

**Kunagiri: Sup bro, been a while. I shall shower you with more lulz, soon.**

**Waifu: After much thoughts, I'll probably slip A2 somewhere around in this story (although it won't be as prominent as 84, which will be pretty subtle, perhaps). Upgrading Ace as The Lancer, maybe even The Aragorn. Do refer to TVTropes if you don't get what I am saying.**

**dikemon: Likewise, I am happy that you're happy with my story. I love the Japanese culture so much, especially the high school system. While it was often associated with romances, I personally loves the high school humors a little more than that. **

**Worry not, Eight and Cater, by their own as well as a pairing, stands as one of my most favorite, and I'll try to do much justice for them.**

**My apologize, there was a small explanation that I missed in the last chapter. Just have a little of importance to this story, but just making this clear:  
****-Ace's school was in Akita, which took about six to seven hours of travel by train to Tokyo.  
****-Deuce's and Cinque's school was in Chiba, which took about one and a half hour or so of travel by train to Tokyo.  
****-Eight's and Jack's school was in Saitama, which took about one hour to Tokyo.**

**Hopefully that small information could help you know a little about it. That's that and we're getting into the story now!**

**This is a work of a mere fan's fiction. Any similarities or likeness to any events or persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Final Fantasy Type-0 belongs to SE.**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Room 218**

* * *

Okay, this was bad. Very. Her teacher was already in the room, and probably had already started the homeroom.

Browsing the internet from dawn till dusk was something that she always did for the whole school breaks, even until yesterday night. That could only end well, obviously. Like this one.

Late in her first day of the school, missed the freshmen assembly and all. Cater definitely was the role model for the every high school girls, yup. The only advantage she had was that she had known her classroom already, if you counted that as one.

Kurasame's gaze at Cater was deep, so deep that it almost made her cringe in fear. The teacher spoke no words, but merely with that gaze, he wordlessly ordered her to explain this entire fiasco.

Cater's response to that? She sheepishly scratched her auburn hair.

"E-erhm… Good morning, teach!"

A _lot_ of students sighed at her lame retort, Eight and Nine both included in there. Some were reacting more polite, perhaps by giggling like Deuce and Cinque, or just kept linefacing like Ace. Cater was a little embarrassed at this, but what could she do? This was partially her fault as well.

…Except not. It was totally her fault.

Cater could only cower and gulp in fear while her teacher was narrowing his eyes further. Again, he spoke no words, but he definitely expected her to give a proper explanation for her lateness.

Damn, there was no helping it.

"I-I am really sorry!" she quickly bent her body and bowed her head in regret. "I-I had to help an old woman cross the streets around the station! A-And it took longer than I expected!"

…

The whole class went dead silent.

Bad blatant lie was bad. That was like something that would happen in an old-school shoujo manga, in which her life was pretty far from that, somewhat.

It was quite obvious: Kurasame didn't buy even the slightest of that bullshit. However, he didn't seem to be mad anymore. Not _that_ mad anyway.

"You must be Cater, right?" he let out an exasperated sigh as he addressed her. "Go sit down on an empty seat."

Inwardly delighted, the redhead bounced her body up in response as she saluted a high 'Yes, sir!' on the air, before she made a quick stop to locate an empty spot for her seating position.

Before anything, though, Cater pulled her uwabaki from her bag to change her sneakers to that in a matter of seconds. That pace of her surprised the whole class but Cater herself was unaware of her friends' surprises. The redhead then proceeded to search for the empty seat again obliviously.

It took her a while to find it. The only empty seat was the backmost row of the leftmost column. Exactly just behind Eight.

Bowing her head slightly, the young girl immediately walked to the said spot in a normal pace. While she walked to her seat, though, she could basically notice everyone's attention locked at her. Some were plain curious of her, some were checking her out for the obvious reason, and some… were uninterested.

Surprisingly, one of those that were uninterested caught her interest while she passed him: the young male who sat directly in front of her. He wasn't looking at her, he was idly gazing at the bright blue sky in boredom, but Cater could swear that she spotted the most distinct feature of him.

Those… beautiful red eyes.

They reminded her of him.

Cater almost stopped dead on her track when she unconsciously had stared at them for a while, but when she snapped out of her reverie and she could feel the whole class was still staring at her, she quickly continued her pace.

No, it was probably mere coincidence. Red eyed boys might be rare, but it was not the most unseen thing in this world.

As soon as Cater had sat on her chair and introduced herself, Kurasame ticked the attendance book. With her coming, that simply meant that his class was complete. Now, to the next subject…

"I am sure most of you aren't familiar with each other yet," he addressed to entire students altogether. "But is there anyone of you, by any chance, would like to nominate yourself as the class representative? One male and one female."

Quite frankly, Kurasame was fighting the urge to add 'Except Nine' there. He DIDN'T want to imagine how dreadful the class would turn if he was chosen.

Just when he finished his offer, someone immediately raised a hand, surprising the rest of the class. It was Deuce.

Ah, Kurasame was deeply pleased by this turns of event. Really, what should he say if it was Cinque instead of Deuce? Maybe it would be worse than how Nine would lead the class. No, not maybe. It _definitely_ would be worse.

"Very good, Deuce, you may lower your hand. Any other girls would like to nominate themselves?"

Deuce put her hand down again as instructed. Kurasame then looked around his students, only to found that nobody actually objected to Deuce's nomination. Perhaps this was the wisest choice as well, this certain Deuce of 1-B was obviously full of spirit and determination and Kurasame felt that she could be entrusted with this job.

Or maybe girls these days were just generally lazy unlike Deuce.

"Anonymously, the female representative has been chosen." Kurasame stated flatly as he turned his eyes to the other population of this class: the males. "As for the males?"

What a _surprise_, nobody raised a hand. It was always this way with the male exhibit on every year.

Although the positive side was that Nine had little chance to get elected. God, this was going to be the only thing that Kurasame would pray with all his might. He had survived the crocodile's mouth that was Cinque as the class representative just now, but he still yet to get through the tiger's mouth. Yeah, by that he meant Nine.

Nonetheless, Kurasame sighed wearily again.

"I am going to count to three. If by the count of three no boys nominated himself yet, I'll have everyone of you nominate a person that you wish to be the class representative. One."

Wow, he resembled someone who was holding a gun on their heads just now. But it was always the most effective way for him, personally.

"Two."

There were chatters and discussion on the air at that point, mostly about who they should chose. Despite their inability to take the first step, Kurasame was rather glad that everyone would like to have a wise leader than to someone half-assed.

Or they were simply too lazy, again.

"Three. I'll ask again for one last time. Anyone?"

No boys were holding a hand out. Glorious, kids these days. For the umpteenth time today, Kurasame sighed again.

"Then Deuce," the teacher demanded politely. "Do you mind lending me a hand here?"

With a determined nod, the said girl rose from her seat as she strode over to the teacher podium, before she grabbed the chalk that the teacher offered and she assumed her position before the green-colored chalkboard.

"Starting from you, Yasunori." Kurasame pointed at one student who sat on the front row. "Who is your nomination?"

The said boys scratched his cheek confusedly, probably because he wasn't really familiar with his classmates yet. After a while, though, he let out a response.

"Ace!"

Eight amusedly quirked an eyebrow at that. What a coincidence, huh? He was the one that Eight gonna nominate himself. Ace himself, though, choked on a surprised yelp from the side and he blurted a noticeable 'What!?' at that.

Deuce nodded as she wrote Ace's name on the board. Kurasame then pointed at the next student. "You're next… Kaede, was it?"

The black haired girl blushed a little before she let out a nervous response. Well, she was going to name a name of a boy that she wasn't too close yet, so that was understandable.

"A-Ace!"

Hearing that response, Deuce wrote another point for Ace on the board. Kurasame continued, pointing the next student.

The cycle continued until every student spoke their mind. And guess what? There were no other names but one: Ace's.

Ace himself? Only groaned and put a palm on his face in exasperation. Boy, Eight pitied the poor dude, but being the one to score the highest score, that much would be expected from Ace by his classmates. Kurasame even though the same thing, actually.

"Then Ace, if you would."

"…Yes, sir."

Eight couldn't unheard Ace's reluctance in that as the latter walked slowly to the main stage, his head dropped in defeat. He soon stood next beside Deuce, who politely nodded at him.

"Should anything urgent come up to me," Kurasame suddenly cut the whole class attention. "These two would be the first one to get my information."

The whole class nodded at Kurasame's word. The blue haired teacher shifted and scooped his books in his arms again.

"Class dismissed. Your terms effectively starts tomorrow. Should you have anything to ask to me, I'll be at my office most of the time."

With that, Kurasame left the class, as calm as ever. A lot of students, who were pressured by Kurasame's figure, were now stretching and relaxing around on their respective seats. Some of them directly went home, but most of them started to converse with each other to know their classmates better. Ace was about to do the former, but when someone called his name, he made a quick pause. Turning around, he directly came in contact with Deuce, who was smiling softly all the time.

"Ace-san," she offered him her hand. "I know it's not going to be easy, but I will try my best to help you. We can do this together, okay?"

The young blond blinked his eyes in a little surprise at that first, before he took her hand and initiated a handshake with her.

"Aah," Ace smiled back. It was not as obvious and as wide as Deuce's, but the smile was warm nonetheless. "I'll be counting on you too."

Ace didn't know that with that response, he just acquired hundreds of 'jealousy beam' from almost all of the boys of the class.

"So, um… Can I have your e-mail address?" the brunette asked Ace politely. "I-I mean, if it's okay with you? So that I can contact you in case anything urgent come up?"

Wow.

That was pretty blunt, Deuce.

Eight himself was already cool with this improvement. Sure, he couldn't say anything much about this, but by just looking at both of Ace and Deuce, you could already tell the aptness between the two. But still… Just look at those boys' jealousy over Ace right here!

"Oh, sure."

…In which Ace didn't give a single fuck at. He casually grabbed his phone from his pocket before the two class representatives traded their e-mail address.

Eight amusedly stole a glance to the burning side of the boys. Hot damn, they were indeed **burning**, not literally. The hotness of the killing intention around them was more than enough to burn bacons. He could also practically overhear them cursing for Ace's misery, or death, even.

Out of sudden, much to their dismays, Deuce suddenly giggled, laughed softly, even.

"Ace-san, you-" she put her free hand around her own chin, holding it gently while letting her subtle giggles erupted. "-have such a cute e-mail address…"

Ace earned his stoic expression back, minus the fact that he shifted his attention aside with faint blushes all over his face. Or for the lack of better terms, he seemed to be rather embarrassed of her exclamation but he refused to show it directly.

"...Whatever. It can be easily remembered that way, anyway."

M-my god, was that that popular 'tsundere' attitude!? Only to be replied with more giggling on Deuce's part!?

Maybe Ace _really_ would have the best of future in this school.

Well, whatever. Some people were really meant to be with each other, Eight supposed? This was his call to leave the class as well. He hadn't packed his things yet, after all. He snatched his bag and shouldered it to leave the room.

Only to feel someone crashed into him from his back.

The brunet slowly turned his attention to his back, only to meet the piercing gaze of a girl.

"Hey, watch it!"

Her grumpy statement entered Eight's ears in bad taste. It was the-girl-who-was-late who just crashed into him. Cater… if he wasn't mistaken?

Eight himself only replied Cater's unsatisfied gaze with a stare of his own. Something like 'Are you freaking serious?' kind of stare. Certainly, that wasn't the best way to leave an impression to him, girl.

"I'll try when _you_ can watch it."

He was rare to retort back with such cynical sentences, but he would fight fire with fire, that was for sure.

"Gee, papa," the redhead disapprovingly countered. "Thanks for the advice. I'll remember that. Do you need me to bring you a coffee now?"

Eight twitched. This girl… sure was a stick in the mud.

"I am terribly sorry for being more mature than you, little miss." Eight replied coolly, even after touching the subject that he was actually not so pro at himself.

Cater winced. This guy… sure was a jackass.

"You're a jerk."

"At least I didn't make a scene on my first day."

Neither of them knew that split second was the start of their epic rivalry. Cater, captured by her anger, started to trash Eight with words, which Eight returned with deadpan replies, which actually rather unusual for him.

Neither of them knew as well that they were turning into the center of the attention, not that they cared. The bickering two's attentions were too lost against each other.

Blue eyes glared at red eyes for the longest of time. Eight did not stir on his spot, but so did Cater as well.

At least until they threw their face elsewhere with a 'humph!', at the same time. Cater, holding her backpack with her, swiftly exited the class from the rear entrance. Eight, as easily expected, exited the class from the other entrance.

Everybody else was left dumbfounded by their interactions, just for your information.

* * *

Post that, Eight didn't head directly into his new room. He had stumbled into his best friend on his way out. Jack, being a true bro he was, quickly invited Eight to venture around the school together, which the brunet replied positively. The two young males strolled around from places to places quickly: the cafeteria, the practice buildings, and of course, the club rooms. Every school clubs, though, wasn't open yet… Tomorrow, probably?

Speaking of clubs, Jack stopped abruptly at one moment to ask him the exact question.

"So~" he cheerily asked the smaller teen. "You're joining clubs, buddy?"

Eight shifted his gaze at his partner. It was faint, but he flashed Jack a grin that was rather confident. His eyes flashed the same level of fervidness as his lips.

"Most probably," Eight sighed contently for a bit. "Although I haven't really decided what. You?"

Much to his surprise, Jack slumped his shoulder down and his face showed his exasperation at Eight's counter. As always, though, his emotion was only halfway serious.

"Man…" Jack sighed as well, although it was one of the weariness to Eight's relieved one. "I want to join baseball so much but Pops kept forcing me to join Kendo."

Eight gave a slight 'ah' at that. Indeed, Jack's father, or more exactly his grandfather, owned a dojo and it had become the family's tradition to keep it alive. Good thing was that the dojo was probably one of the best in Japan.

…Which Jack needed to inherit, huh? Eight couldn't help but chuckling a little at that. No matter how you looked at it, Jack would never befit to walk the path of sword with that demeanor of him. It was definitely a mismatch, Jack would be better off as a stand-up comedian than that.

"If you're that confused," Eight stifled his laughs. "Just join both."

"Eugh, if only that's going to be so easy…" Jack quickly intercepted, whining. "Pops would gimme _hell_ if my grades aren't to his liking."

…

_Jack, weren't you like… pretty popular for your laziness? And still are?_

…Nope, he wouldn't say that out loud. He just gave him a single nod.

After that, the two continued to travel around the whole school to enjoy the feature, chatting and laughing together while at it.

* * *

"Gee, Eight~ You sure do bring a lot of things with you here~"

"…This is the least I could afford, you know."

In front of the male dormitory, the goods that Eight had asked to sent had just arrived. Two big boxes consisted of Eight's clothes and daily needs.

"Well~" Jack chimed, grinning. "Lemme just put my bag and I'll help you carry 'em to your room~"

"You don't really need to, actually." Eight countered with a small smile in return. "I can bring it in by myself."

Much to Eight's surprise, Jack didn't obey. The taller man made a good use of the differences of their heights and he rested his arm playfully on the brunet's head.

"Come on now, dorm mate~" the blonde's grin widened. "No need to act all toughie and ask your old pal Jack for a hand~"

Eight grumbled under his breath. Goddammit, Jack! He _really_ hated it when someone made a game out of his height.

And apparently, Jack forgot what would he 'gain' when he made fun of Eight.

Swiftly, Eight grabbed the arm on his hair before he swept it onto his shoulder, surprising Jack a lot. And as fast as the previous motion, the brunet easily flung Jack to the hard concrete by performing a shoulder throw at the said guy. Jack's back hit the ground with a loud thud as he clutched his blond hair in pain.

Eight himself merely tapped and wiped his own shoulder casually, as if he just had taken out trashes. Shifting his gaze at his best friend, Eight condescendingly smirked.

"My bad, can you help me carry these boxes inside, Jack? I am sure we can use someone with sore back like you."

One of these days, Eight would try to _not _to use any form of sarcasm. One of these days…

"D-Damn, man…" Jack whined in pain, still rubbing his pained head. "Sometimes you can be pretty harsh…"

"You brought it on yourself."

Despite his words, Eight still offered a hand for his best friend to take. Of course, Jack did take his hand to aid him to stand. It was still a bit painful, but Jack managed to stand on his two legs.

"So, uh..." Jack brushed the dusts off his pants. "Where's your room again~?"

Unsurprisingly, Eight had stepped in to grab one of the huge box and had lifted the box with one hand just after he had helped Jack to stand.

"Second floor. Room 218."

With that, Eight then breezily walked in through the dorm, leaving the still-pained-Jack to carry the other box, in which the guy barely could. Moreover, Eight might be walking, but his pace was way faster than Jack. Luckily, Jack could still keep up with his face, albeit he needed to run to tail his friend.

After a short walk, the two had stumbled into a door labeled with a big and shiny '218' in front of it. Tiredly, Jack put the box down from his shoulder.

"Man," he let out a tired sigh, stretching his sore shoulder while at it. "Guess you could take it from here, right?"

"Yeah," Eight nodded in affirmation. "Thanks for the help, Jack."

As always, Jack beamed back with a big grin.

"No problemo~ No problemo~" he gave his partner one thumb up. "…Although I would prefer it if you didn't perform a judo throw at me, Eight."

Eight laughed at that. "I'll try."

"Well, then~" Jack once again crossed his arms behind his head cheerfully. "I'm off to my room. See ya later at dinner, Eight~"

Jack quickly strode away while waving at his friend. Surprisingly, he didn't seem to be in pain anymore, since he was able to move at his normal speed.

Eight returned his pal's gesture before he dragged the two boxes with him inside. Of course, Eight being the polite person, knocked the door first in case there was someone else already inside: His yet-to-be-known roommate.

Well, he originally preferred to be roomed with Jack, but apparently, to help every student got along with each other, the school put a rule to randomize the dormers. Not that Eight disliked it, though. Once again, he needed to put a good first impression, to his new roommate this time.

"Good afternoon. I'm coming in."

…That actually wasn't too polite because he directly opened the door to enter, but whatever, he did it with his own style.

As soon as he was able to see his room, he was simply mesmerized by how good the furniture arrangement inside was. There were two well furnished desks as well as two big wardrobes, and as for the sleeping spot, there was but one bunk bed for that. Still, Eight could already tell he would enjoy his dorm life with this kind of room.

However, he did notice there was already someone else here, who was rising into a sitting position on the bottom bed. Eight didn't really know who he was, but he had shiny gold hair. The other teen was looking at him through his thin framed glasses in a small surprise, the small novel in his hand was opened widely.

…Or did Eight? He swore he had seen that book before, from sometime not too long ago, even.

Carefully, Eight squinted his red eyes at the other man. He knew that he wasn't being very polite, but apparently, the blonde did the same thing at Eight. Before long, though, the golden haired boy closed his book tightly, smiling slightly at him.

"Eight, correct?"

He recognized that voice, alright. It was _him_. The name did flashed by his memory just a moment ago, but he couldn't bring himself to say it as fast as how he wanted to.

It was the freshmen representative, as well as 1-B's representative, Ace.

"A-aah," subconsciously, Eight nodded. "Nice to be your acquaintances once again, class representative."

Had he gone too formal on that one? …Maybe he should just drop all his formality since this was his classmate.

On correspondence to that, Ace managed a small chuckle. "Please, I prefer it if you call me by my given name."

Eight scratched his back hair in return, chuckling back in return. Although, sadly, he couldn't help but ponder on how he and Ace were stumbled with each other, a lot. Let's see… There were the freshmen opening ceremony as well as the classroom's event, and then… this…

Sure, he liked the terms 'tied with red strings', but definitely NOT with a guy.

"Need a help with that?"

Ace's question broke Eight out of his trance as the golden haired male rose from his bed, pointing at the boxes beside his roommate's figure. Surprised, Eight turned his head at the said boxes before he returned his attention at Ace.

"Thanks for the offer, but that's not necessary," the brunet smiled a little. "You know what they said about wardrobe invader."

Eight's joke got Ace there, for the teen was laughing a little as a response.

"Don't tell me," Ace's boyish laugh erupted. "that you bring porn magazines with you in that boxes."

"Who do you take me for?"

Eight was laughing in return as well.

Awkwardly, that was.

Because he actually slipped one between his clothes in one of the boxes.

* * *

_Next: Chapter 3: First Day, First Rivalry_

_So much for the high school romance, much? Eight swore that this Cater girl was getting into his nerves even more. And she just needed to shove that into his throat at every second passed!_

* * *

**As for Ace's and Deuce's conversation, Japanese prefers to use e-mail to contact each other to SMSing or phoning, apparently, especially at the beginning of a friendship. Moreover, they apparently found that SMS were more expensive than e-mailing. The two most used are probably DoCoMo's and Softbank's e-mail.**

**Hopefully, there wasn't anything else that I missed to explain in this chapter, although please do point it out via PM or review if there was anything that I did miss to iterate. By the way, by Five Man Bands terms, the characters here are probably going to be something like:**

**The boys:  
****The Hero: Eight  
****The Lancer/ The Aragorn: Ace  
****The Big Guy: Nine  
****The Smart Guy: Trey  
****The Heart: Jack  
****The Big Brother Mentor: King  
****The Sixth (Seventh) Ranger: Machina**

**The girls:  
****The Hero(ine): Cater  
****The Lancer: Deuce  
****The Big Guy (Girl): Sice  
****The Smart Guy (Girl): Queen  
****The Chick: Cinque  
****The Cool Big Sis: Seven  
****The Sixth (Seventh) Ranger: Rem**

**Again, refer to TVTropes if you need a description. Final words, I sincerely hope you can give me a feedback on this one. Hopefully I'll be update my stories quickly this year.**


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